U3A Ballarat Hikers

 U3A Hike No. 163 Hike Report by Mark B Despite the strong possibility of rain, eight of us drove to the "Five Ways" intersection in the Creswick Forest and parked along the road near there. The walk involved a mixture of roads and various tracks including part of the Goldfields Trail. The overcast day allowed us to see the colours and shapes of the forest without being distracted by shadows and bright reflections from the sun. Also, there was no wind and it made for a very tranquil mood. The walk was generally not difficult with notable exceptions of gully crossings, where the track had been severely eroded by 4-wheel drivers. Some of the climbs down these gullies was quite difficult and required great care not to slip down into the very steep dips made by the vehicles. In addition, there were many pools of water covering the track and a bit of bush-bashing was occasionally required. The initial length of the walk was planned to be about 15 km but it was decided to cut

 U3A Hike No. 162 Hike Report by Anne 10 walkers met at Canadian to begin an exploration of the Whitehorse Ridge, led by mining enthusiast Gordon. Newly released from another lockdown, it was great to be walking as a group again. We crossed Main Road and headed into the pine forest wasteland south of Elsworth Street. This area has been christened “Mattress Mine” by the New Chums class, due to the amount of household waste dumped in the area. We were agreeably surprised to see that some large scale cleaning up of the area was occurring, with gorse, blackberries and rubbish removed from the area nearest Elsworth Street. We stopped to look at the North Prince Extended airshaft – a former quartz mine shaft now being used to draw air from the Ballarat Goldfields mine. This mine was one of many quartz mines dotted along the Whitehorse Ridge during the 1870’s to 1900, following the indicator bands of dark slate and quartz that pointed to the presence of gold. Wandering on through the pine t